Caioti Pizza Cafe   

Sharing the national mall in Washington D.C. with Emeril Lagasse, Paul Prudhomme and other top-shelf chefs, SoCal's Ed LaDou showed off his culinary stuff at the Smithsonian-sponsored Folklife Festival, a Food Culture USA event intent on showing off the skills of America's finest cuisine artists. LaDou's specialty, as all of D.C. now knows, is pizza, and the Caioti Pizza Cafe is the place where he regularly makes his magic. His popular Valley pizzeria serves up three self-described styles of pies: Old World (the Mediterranean-style thin crust), New World (the contemporary fusion number) and New York (the sloppy, street-corner favorite), all of which attract worldwide pizza fans on the hunt for an embarrassment of riches. Better yet, he's priced them within range of those who can't break the bank for a night out, as well as those looking for left-field pies made of everything from buffalo to lobster sausage. There are also brunch specials to be had and desserts that could take down a rhino, so don't think he's a one-dimensional virtuoso. If you're into food that will confound your palate, LaDou is your dude.